Expo 2025 Osaka

In 2025, Osaka will host its 2nd international Exhibition, the first being Expo’70 in Suita, that met with tremendous success at the time. Its iconic landmark, the Tower of the Sun designed by Taro Okamoto, is still standing in the Expo’70 Commemorative Park and open to the visit.

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Expo'70 Commemorative Park - The Tower of the Sun in the North of Osaka

As for Japan, it is the 3rd of such international event: the archipelago indeed hosted the Expo 2005 Aichi in Nagoya’s suburb, Aichi Prefecture. The site is now home to the recently built Ghibli Park, inaugurated in 2022.

A complicated organization

With 2 previous successful Japanese experiences, the organizing of Expo 2025 Osaka seemed to be on the right track. However, less than 1 year before its inauguration, the project appears to be dragging, due to controversial choices regarding the selection of the site, of its architects, and undervalued construction costs.

Yumeshima Island’s controversial choice

The site selected for hosting Expo 2025 Osaka is Yumeshima, an artificial island of a 1,55 km2 superficies, located at the westernmost side of the city, near Universal Studios Japan and Tempozan, in the Osaka Bay.

The island, whose name literally means "dream island" (!), was initially a dumping ground where various pollutant waste have been buried. Its ground is soft, and at risk of sinking, a characteristic trait of the bay’s artificial islands, and would be prone to soil liquefaction in case of a strong earthquake.

Therefore, large scale works to improve safety, sanitation and infrastructures have been endeavored since 2021, to make Yumeshima a safer place, with cleaned-up soil and better connection to the city’s amenities (water and power supply, transportation). The project’s ¥78,8 billion (~550.9 million dollars) cost is mainly financed by Osaka City, and fiercely criticized by its opponents as a waste of public funds. These investments are indeed not really intended for the local population’s benefit, as Yumeshima Island is set to welcome a tourist resort complex and a casino, in partnership with American Group MGM Resorts International by 2030, following Expo 2025.

Sophisticated architecture of the Ring, by Sou Fujimoto

The Expo’s building layout consists of a main area located by the water on the south side, intended to gather the pavilions, and large green stretch in the west. Contemporary Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto has designed the Ring, a monumental circular wooden structure to highlight this central space. With a nearly 700 meters diameter and a 2km circumference, the Ring symbolizes the connection and the communion of the world’s cultures under the same sky. It will also serve as a panoramic walkway inside the Expo.

While the philosophical idea behind the architectural artwork is commendable, its actual construction sparked a debate within the Japanese architects’ community. Yamamoto Riken (2024 Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize) thinks impossible to build it in the way it was advertised, and doesn’t understand why the organization committee, which included several renowned architects like Tadao Ando, choose it.

Regardless, the building of Expo 2025’s monumental symbol is in progress, with a very tight schedule, but several problems have already been pointed. The Ring’s design was created for an all-wood building, harnessing a traditional carpentry technique without nails nor screws, widely used in temples and shrines, and displayed at the Takenaka Carpentry Tools Museum. However, the project’s size and requirement to withstand earthquakes are so challenging that the subcontractor building companies have introduced metal mountings in lieu of the traditional technique. Delays as well as cost overruns in the Ring’s building are already under scrutiny, all the more as the structure is only temporary and is to be dismantled at the end of the Expo.

Rising costs and construction delays

The initial estimated budget of most large scale event often fail to stay on tracks, and Expo 2025 Osaka is no exception. The site is currently facing a drastic increase of costs due to labor and material shortage, impacting the infrastructures as well as the international pavilions.

Enthusiasm is also quite low among the 160 participating countries. Several nations have already announced their participation on a smaller scale than initially intended, such as India, Pakistan, Estonia and Mexico. For obvious geopolitical reasons, Russia withdrew as soon as November 2023, and Argentina did the same for fiscal reasons.

Others have already unveiled their pavilions’ design, like France in early 2024, that will be in the Empowering lives area, and the groundbreaking ceremony for the USA Pavilion, themed on innovation and exploration and sponsored by MGM Resorts International, took place in April. As of June 2024, of the 50 countries intending to have their own pavilions, about a dozen are yet to complete a construction project.

In Japan, the hardest critics demand the event’s cancellation, because of its cost and the delays in the works on Yumeshima. Moreover, the Noto Peninsula earthquake of January 1rst, 2024 is cited as an additional argument for canceling as helping the victims should be a priority for spending public funding. Should the BIE vote (with a 2/3 majority) the cancellation of the Universal Expo, Japan would have to compensate the participating countries, but such a situation seems rather unlikely.

How to attend Expo 2025 Osaka?

The Expo official online shop has opened on November 30, 2023 and as of August 14, 2024, more than 4 million tickets have been sold. The organizers are expecting 28,2 million visitors (of which 3,5 millions are international visitors). For comparison:

• Expo’70 attracted 64,2 million visitors and Aichi 2005 about 22 million (exceeding the expected 20 million);
• Expo’90 The International Garden and Greenery Exposition that took place in Tsurumi Ryokuchi in the east of Osaka received a little bit more than 23 million visitors;
• Dubai’s Expo 2020 received about 24 million visitors;
• Universal Studios Japan in Osaka, the 3rd busiest theme park in the world was visited by 12,35 million in 2022 (and 14,5 million visitors in 2019).

This very ambitious visitors goal makes it easier to purchase a ticket.

Buy your e-ticket in advance

The One-Day tickets are discounted 20% until October 6, 2024, then 10% until April 12, 2025.

The official online shop is the primary place to purchase an admission ticket in advance, following these simple steps:

1. Create your ExpoID, that is to say your account;
2. Buy your electronic admission ticket (QR Code) online: select your age and the time period you want to go (8 different possibilities);
3. Choose and book up to 6 months in advance the exact visit day as well as your time slots (limited availability) to visit the pavilions, view exhibitions or specific events, that is to say from October 2024 for a visit in April 2025.

You can also purchase admission tickets through an authorized reseller, such as a travel agent, to skip the process. These professionals, like Keikaku, can also plan tailor-made travel to Japan including Expo 2025 Osaka in your itinerary.

Expo 2025 Osaka’s promotional campaign is in full swing, and Osaka is overtaken by posters and various licensed products showing the official mascot Myaku-myaku (whose quirky design never fails to impress).

It has also been announced that the life-size (16 meters high) Gundam RX-78 statue will be displayed in a new kneeling position in front of the Bandai Namco pavilion during the Expo.

As for transport, Kansai International Airport (KIX) has been undergoing renovation works since 2021 to improve the travel conditions of prospective visitors arriving by air. Likewise, the Chuo subway 🚇 line is expected to be extended from Osaka’s city center to serve directly Yumeshima Island, that is currently only connected by road.

Those who would like to visit Expo 2025 Osaka are strongly recommended to book their trip to Japan as soon as possible to benefit from discounts and early bird prices.